The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Seeding rate is one of many important agronomical management decisions a corn grower makes each year. Seeding rate refers to the number of seeds planted in an acre of land. Seed costs may constitute up to 14% of a grower's total production cost per year. Therefore it is important to determine an optimal seeding rate that produces that desired return for the grower. Different types of corn plants may produce different yields based upon population density. As a result the hybrid seed type may affect the relationship between seeding rate and yield.
In general, corn plants within a field share resources and as a result more densely populated corn plants produce smaller ears than corn plants that are more spread out. Corn response to increased seeding rate is dependent on a biologically complex process which involves both vegetative and reproductive growth and affects grain yield through various components such as number of ears per plant, number of kernels in an ear and kernel weight. As a result, the final yield is a trade-off between more plants in an area and the decreased yield per plant due to intensified inter-plant competition. Seeding rate is also affected by soil productivity, weather conditions, and sowing row width. Determining optimal seeding rate for a grower may depend on hybrid seed varieties and planting strategies.